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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/sketchoflifeofhoOOpier 


Sketch  of  the  Life 

of  the 

Hon.  ION  KEITH-FALCONER 

PIONEER  MISSIONARY  TO  ARABIA 


By  the  Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.  D. 


THE  KEITII-FALCONER  MEMORIAL  CHURCH  AT  ADEN. 


THE  ARABIAN  MISSION  OF  THE 
REFORMED  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA 
25  East  22d  Street,  New  York  City 


“  While  vast  continents  are  shrouded  in 
almost  utter  darkness,  and  hundreds  of 
millions  suffer  the  horrors  of  heathenism 
or  Islam,  the  burden  of  proof  lies  upon  you 
to  show  that  the  circumstances  in  which 
God  has  placed  you  were  meant  by  Him  to 
keep  you  out  of  the  foreign  mission  field.” 

— Ion  Keith-F alconer . 


FOREWORD 


There  is  no  better  fuel  to  kindle  the  missionary  fire  and  keep  it 
at  white  heat  than  the  great  missionary  biographies.  The  life  of 
David  Brainerd  inspired  William  Carey  and  made  Henry  Martyn  a 
missionary.  The  life  of  Martyn  has  been  the  inspiration  of  thousands 
and  still  fascinates  all  who  read  it  with  its  wonderful  power. 
Raymund  Lull,  Henry  Martyn,  Karl  Gottlieb  Pfander,  Thomas  Valpy 
French,  Cornelius  Van  Dyck — all  these  were  pioneers,  in  a  special 
sense,  in  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Mohammedans,  but  Ion  Keith- 
Falconer  was  the  first  to  go  out  to  Arabia,  the  Cradle  of  Islam. 

His  brief  life  story  bears  witness  to  the  truth  of  Ruskin’s  words  : 
“Of  all  the  pulpits  from  which  the  human  voice  is  ever  sent  forth, 
there  is  none  from  which  it  reaches  so  far  as  from  the  grave." 

A  volume  of  “  Memorials  of  the  Hon.  Ion  Iveith-Falconer  ”  was 
written  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Sinker,  D.D.,  shortly  after  his  death  in 
1888  and  reached  a  sixth  edition.  There  was  place,  however,  and 
demand  for  a  more  succinct  account  of  this  life  in  a  more  accessible 
form.  The  following  sketch,  prepared  by  one  long  skilled  in  writing 
missionary  biographies  and  a  high  authority  on  missions,  reached  a 
wide  circle  of  readers.  By  Dr.  A.  T.  Pierson’s  kind  permission  and 
that'  of  the  publishers,  the  Arabian  Mission  has  reprinted  it  in  this 
new  form,  in  the  hope  that  it  will  give  new  inspiration  to  many. 

In  a  real  sense,  the  Arabian  Mission,  as  well  as  the  Mission  of 
the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  has  been  the  fulfillment  of  the 
plans  and  hopes  of  him  who  lived,  and  died,  “  to  call  attention  to 
Arabia.”  Arabia  holds  as  a  rich  heritage  the  graves  of  those  who, 
like  Keith-Falconer,  “died  in  faith  not  having  received  the  promises 
but  having  seen  and  greeted  them  from  afar.”  Those  who  come 
later  enter  into  their  labors,  and  should  enter  into  their  spirit  of 
devotion  and  sacrifice.  Ion  Keith-Falconer  being  dead  yet  speaketh. 
Shall  we  not  heed  his  message  ? 

S.  M.  Z. 


3 


The  Hon.  Ion  Keith-Falconer 

Pioneer  in  Arabia 

1856-1887 


BY  REV.  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D.* 


INTRODUCTORY 

History  is  “philosophy  teaching  by  examples precept 
reduced  to  practice ;  the  Book  of  Life  presented  in  an 
illustrated,  sometimes  an  illuminated,  edition. 

The  heroic  young  man  whose  brief  biography  is  here 
recorded  represented  .the  very  flower  of  British  civiliza¬ 
tion  ;  and  the  lesson  of  his  short  but  beautiful  career  may 
be  comprehended  in  one  sentence :  The  best  is  not  too 
good  for  God’s  work,  and  the  length  of  life  is  not  the 
measure  of  its  service. 

It  is  now  forty-three  years  since  Ion  Keith-Falconer 
was  born  in  Edinburgh,  Scotland;  and  just  then  began  an 
eventful  era  in  missions ,  when  more  new  doors  were  sud¬ 
denly  thrown  open  for  missionary  labor  than  in  any  pre¬ 
vious  decade  of  years  since  Christ’s  last  command  was 
given  to  His  Church.  Born  in  1856,  he  died  in  1887 — 
his  brief  life-story  on  earth  covering  only  about  thirty 
years.  Yet,  if  “that  life  is  long  which  answers  life’s  great 
end,”  we  must  count  these  thirty  years  as  spanning  eter¬ 
nity,  for  they  wrought  out  God’s  eternal  purpose,  and  left 
a  lasting  legacy  of  blessing  to  the  young  men  of  all  gener¬ 
ations,  the  true  wealth  and  worth  of  which  only  eternity 
can  compute. 

*  From  “The  Picket  Line  of  Missions,”  by  permission  of  Eaton 
&  Mains;  copyrighted,  1897. 


5 


KEITH-FATCONER’S  ANCESTRY 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  quaintly  but  profoundly  said 
that  the  training  of  the  child  begins  a  hundred  years  be¬ 
fore  its  birth.  In  other  words,  character  has  its  law  of 
heredity ;  it  transmits,  at  least,  its  aptitudes.  There  is 
something  in  blood,  in  breeding,  literally  construed ;  and 
young  Keith-Falconer  might  well  be  proud  of  his  lineage, 
for  in  more  senses  than  one  it  was  noble.  He  could  trace 
the  stream  of  his  family  life  back  through  eight  centuries. 
In  the  year  1010,  when  Malcolm  II.  was  King  of  Scot¬ 
land,  Robert  Keith,  his  remote  ancestor,  by  his  valor  and 
prowess  in  the  battle  with  the  Danish  invaders,  won  the 
title  of  Hereditary  Great  Mareschal  of  Scotland  and  what 
Robert  Keith  did  in  battle  for  the  Scottish  crown  his  de¬ 
scendant,  long  after,  did  for  the  crown  and  covenant  of 
the  King  of  Kings — he  became  a  standard-bearer  on  the 
battlefield  where  the  Moslem  and  the  Christian  powers 
meet,  to  contend  for  the  victory  of  the  ages  and  he  won  a 
higher  honor  and  title  than  can  be  conferred  by  human 
sovereigns  as  one  of  the  Knights  of  the  Cross. 

HIS  BOYHOOD 

This  biography  may  perhaps  best  be  studied  from  four 
points  of  view :  his  boyhood,  his  college  life,  his  home 
work,  and  his  pioneer  enterprise  on  the  shores  of  the  Red 
Sea. 

The  first  period  we  may  rapidly  sketch,  as  the  materials 
are  not  abundant.  He  was  marked,  as  a  boy,  by  four  con¬ 
spicuous  qualities :  a  certain  manliness,  magnanimity,  piety 
and  unselfishness — rare  traits  indeed  in  a  lad.  He  loved 
outdoor  sports  and  excelled  in  athletics.  Six  feet  and 
three  inches  in  height,  and  well  formed,  his  physical  pres¬ 
ence,  when  he  attained  full  stature,  was  like  that  of  Saul, 
the  first  king  of  Israel,  and  made  him  conspicuous  among 
his  fellows.  No  wonder  that  he  was  a  favorite  with  the 


6 


modern  advocates  of  muscular  Christianity,  since  at 
twenty  he  was  President  of  the  London  Bicycle  Club  and 
at  twenty-two  the  champion  racer  of  Britain,  distancing 
in  a  five-mile  race,  in  1878,  even  John  Keen  himself.  Four 
years  later  he  was  the  first  to  go  on  his  wheel  from  Land’s 
End  to  John  O’Groat’s  House — very  nearly  one  thousand 
miles ;  and  he  triumphantly  accomplished  that  feat  in 
thirteen  days — an  average  of  nearly  eighty  miles  a  day. 

If  his  stalwart  manhood  won  applause,  much  more  his 
sterling  worth  as  a  man  of  inward  strength  and  symmetry. 
Let  us  not  forget  that  this  champion  in  the  race  for  mus¬ 
cular  superiority  was  too  strong  and  brave  in  soul  to  be 
overcome  of  his  own  lusts,  or  enticed.  He  loved  truth  in 
the  inward  parts,  and  had  no  patience  with  shams  or 
frauds  and  he  recalls  to  our  thought  the  famous  statue 
which  represents  Veracity,  standing  with  open  face,  the 
mask  of  dissimulation  lying  at  his  feet,  cleft  with  the 
sword  of  Sincerity.  He  was  not  ashamed  to  make  the 
Bible  the  one  book  he  loved  and  studied  and  from  the 
earliest  dawn  of  his  intelligence  he  was  a  faithful  and 
loyal  student  of  God’s  Holy  Word,  and  sought  by  obedi¬ 
ence  to  get  ever-increasing  knowledge  of  its  true  spirit 
and  meaning. 

Better  than  all,  yet  by  no  means  independent  of  the 
rest,  were  his  unselfish  piety  and  charity.  To  impart  is 
the  highest  blessedness,  though  most  of  us  do  not  learn 
the  bliss  of  giving,  if  at  all,  until  late  in  life.  A  true 
benevolence  is  the  ripest  fruit,  and  grows  on  the  topmost 
branch  of  holy  living.  Yet  this  lad  early  showed  a  deep 
sympathy  with  sorrow  and  suffering,  and  his  boyhood’s 
days  are  even  yet  remembered  for  his  simple  ministries 
to  those  who  needed  help.  His  old  nurse  has  told  how  he 
went  about,  a  boy  of  seven,  reading  and,  in  his  way,  ex¬ 
plaining  the  Bible  in  the  cottages  of  poor  peasants ;  and 
how,  having  on  one  occasion  spent  his  pocket  money  for 
some  baker’s  choicest  cakes,  he  bestowed  them  all,  un- 


8 


tasted,  upon  a  hungry  boy.  What  a  prophecy  all  this  of 
the  man  who  was  to  give  his  short  life  to  teaching  the 
ignorant,  and  himself  to  become  one  of  God’s  barley 
loaves  to  feed  dying  souls ! 

UNIVERSITY  UIFE 

We  come  now  to  glance  rapidly  at  his  college  life. 
Keith-Falconer  was  an  example  of  concentrated  powers  of 
mind  as  well  as  of  body,  of  a  fine  quality  of  brains  as  well 
as  brawn.  He  mastered  “shorthand,”  for  instance,  and 
rivalled  Pitman  himself.  Those  who  want  to  see  how  a 
young  man  may  distinguish  himself  in  this  difficult  art 
would  do  well  to  read  his  article,  “Shorthand,”  in  the 
Encyclopoedia  Britannic  a,  which  is  a  model  of  careful  and 
comprehensive  statement  as  to  the  science  and  art  of  pho¬ 
nography.  Although  he  might  not,  perhaps,  have  been 
accounted  a  genius,  he  had  the  genius  of  industry,  and,  by 
“plodding,”  like  William  Carey,  achieved  distinction.  He 
was  conscientious  in  his  curriculum,  and  applied  himself 
to  hard  tasks,  and  patiently  and  persistently  overcame 
obstacles,  until  he  rose  to  an  enviable  rank  and  won  honors 
and  prizes  which  the  indolent  and  indifferent  never  secure. 
We  shall  see,  later  on,  how  he  was  appointed  to  the  pro¬ 
fessorship  of  Arabic  at  Cambridge  University — a  fitting 
crown  to  his  academic  career,  in  which  he  successfully 
mastered  not  only  the  regular  and  ordinary  tasks,  but 
theology,  Hebrew,  the  Semitic  languages,  and  kindred 
studies,  and  learned  the  Tonic  Sol-fa  system  of  music. 

The  missionary  spirit  burned  in  him,  even  in  college 
days  and  within  college  walls,  though  the  atmosphere  of 
a  university  is  not  very  stimulating  to  aggressive  and 
evangelistic  piety.  The  lad  who,  at  Harrow  School,  not 
yet  fourteen  years  old,  was,  by  the  testimony  of  the  mas¬ 
ters,  “energetic,  manly,  and  vigorous,”  although  “neither 
a  prig  nor  a  Pharisee,”  was,  during  his  brilliant  career  at 
Cambridge,  which  began  in  1874,  not  only  fearless  in  the 


9 


avowal  of  his  Christian  faith,  but  was  moved  by  that  pas¬ 
sion  for  souls  which  compels  unselfish  utterance  and  effort 
in  behalf  of  others. 

In  temperance  and  mission  work  he  both  used  and 
tested  his  powers  and  adaptations  as  to  a  wider  field  of 
service.  He  became  the  leader  of  a  band  of  Christian 
students  who,  in  the  old  theatre  at  Barnwell,  near  Cam¬ 
bridge,  carried  on  ragged  school  work  and  similar  Gos¬ 
pel  evangelism.  From  among  themselves  and  friends,  he 
and  his  fellow-workers  raised  about  eight  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  to  purchase  the  building,  and  there  a  wide-reaching 
service  began,  whose  harvest  is  not  yet  fully  gathered  and 
garnered.  In  this  sphere  Keith-Falconer  earnestly  and 
vigorously  wrought,  and  when  he  spoke  uttered  the  clear 
common  sense  which  is  better  than  ambitious  oratory. 

WORK  OUTSIDE  THE  UNIVERSITY 

A  field  in  London  next  drew  him.  When  yet  but  a 
lad  of  fifteen  he  had  met  F.  N.  Charrington,  then  a  young 
man  of  twenty-one,  who,  while  going  afoot  through  Aber¬ 
deenshire,  had  paid  a  visit  to  the  house  of  his  father,  the 
Earl  of  Kintore.  Between  Keith-Falconer  and  Charring¬ 
ton,  notwithstanding  six  years’  difference  in  their  ages, 
a  very  intimate  friendship  at  once  sprang  up,  which  bore 
that  most  blessed  fruit,  fellowship  in  holy  work  for  God 
and  man. 

Mr.  Charrington,  now  so  conspicuously  known  as  the 
founder  and  leader  of  the  Tower  Hamlets  Mission  in  the 
East  End  of  London,  had,  two  years  before  meeting  young 
Keith-Falconer,  consecrated  his  life,  at  the  cost  of  sur¬ 
rendering  a  princely  fortune  as  a  brewer,  to  uplifting  and 
redeeming  the  East  End  drunkards  and  outcasts.  When, 
late  at  night,  he  watched  the  wretched  wives  and  mothers 
anxiously  waiting  for  their  husbands  outside  the  vile 
drinkshops  over  which  the  name  of  “Charrington,  Head 
&  Co.”  shone  in  gold  and  azure,  he  felt  a  mighty  impulse 


IO 


FOUR  PIONEER  MISSIONARIES  TO  ARABIA. 


[  For  an  account  of  their  work  see  Herbert  Birk’s  Life  and  Corres¬ 
pondence  of  Bishop  T.  V.  French  ;  H.  H.  Jessup’s  Kamil  Abd  ul 
Messiah;  Robert  Sinker's  Memorials  of  Ion  Keith  Falconer,  and  S.  M. 
Zwemer’s  Arabia  the  Cradle  of  Islam,  chap,  xxxi-xxxiv.] 

II 


within  him  to  break  off  the  yoke  of  the  drink  traffic  and, 
resigning  the  eldest  son’s  birthright  share  in  the  business, 
he  accepted  a  smaller  portion,  and  even  that  he  laid  on  the 
altar  of  humanity,  resolved  that  the  money,  largely  coined 
out  of  human  woe,  should  be  dedicated  to  human  weal, 
in  raising  out  of  drunkenness  and  vice  the  very  classes  that 
the  beershop  had  dragged  down.  Charrington  began  his 
work  in  a  hayloft ;  from  there  he  was  crowded  into  a 
larger  hall ;  then  a  big  tent,  until,  in  1877,  a  larger  Assem¬ 
bly  Hall  was  opened  where  two  thousand  people  were 
gathered  night  after  night  for  nine  years. 

Keith-Falconer’s  name  is  inseparable  from  the  grand 
work  of  Charrington,  and  therefore  it  is  no  digression  to 
give  that  noble  enterprise  ample  mention.  The  two  young 
men,  moved  by  a  similar  impulse,  were  divinely  knit  to¬ 
gether,  as  were  David  and  Jonathan.  During  his  Cam¬ 
bridge  days  Keith-Falconer  often  went  to  London  to  visit 
his  friend,  watch  his  work,  and  give  it  help.  He  also  took 
his  share  of  the  opposition  and  persecution  that  made 
Charrington  its  target.  He  accepted,  with  him,  the 
“mobbing”  which  rewarded  unselfish  service  to  the  de¬ 
graded  slaves  of  drink,  going  with  him  to  the  police 
office,  when  his  friend  was  arrested  on  false  charges,  as 
one  that  was  turning  the  world  upside  down.  Like  Char¬ 
rington,  also,  he  had  his  reward.  He  saw  drunkards  re¬ 
formed,  gangs  of  thieves  broken  up,  public  houses  de¬ 
serted  and  for  sale  at  half  their  cost,  and  homes  redeemed 
from  the  curse  of  rum  and  crime. 

During  the  fearful  winter  of  1879  the  feeding  of  hun¬ 
gry  multitudes  occupied  the  attention  of  Charrington  and 
his  helpers,  and  led  utimately  to  the  erection  of  the  new 
hall  which,  at  a  cost  of  $200,000,  stands  with  its  buildings 
as  a  perpetual  benediction  to  the  neighborhood,  and  in 
which  for  over  ten  years  untold  blessing  has  been  imparted 
to  thousands  and  even  millions.  In  that  larger  Assembly 
Hall  the  writer  has  more  than  once  spoken,  and  in  the 


personal  acquaintance  of  the  founder  and  father  of  the 
enterprise  he  rejoices.  From  personal  observation,  there¬ 
fore,  he  can  testify  that  in  that  grand  audience  room  on 
Mile  End  Road  five  thousand  people  gather  under  the 
sound  of  one  voice ;  there,  every  night,  a  Gospel  service  is 
held;  the  days  of  mob  violence  are  over,  and  Mr.  Char- 
rington  finds  stalwart  defenders  in  the  poor  victims  whose 
yoke  he  has  been  the  means  of  breaking,  and  the  whole 
East  End  is  gradually  being  redeemed  from  its  social 
anathema. 

In  all  this  work  Keith-Falconer  has  an  eternal  share, 
as  in  its  reward.  It  was  he  who,  as  honorary  secretary, 
issued  the  necessary  appeals,  himself  becoming  a  beggar 
for  funds  and  a  donor  to  the  extent  of  $10,000.  As  a  col¬ 
lege  student  he  would  hurry  off  to  the  metropolis  for  a 
week  at  a  time,  lend  a  hand  and  a  voice  as  needed,  visit 
the  poor,  teach  the  word,  aid  in  administrative  details,  and 
then  hurry  back  to  Cambridge  and  its  duties.  In  his- 
Meniorials  of  Ion  Keith-Falconer  Mr.  Sinker  says : 

“In  the  summer  of  that  year  (1886)  I  accompanied 
Keith-Falconer  to  see  the  building,  and  we  were  taken  by 
Mr.  Charrington  to  the  central  point  of  the  upper  gallery 
of  the  great  hall,  to  gain  the  best  general  view  of  the 
room.  As  we  sat  there  I  could  not  but  be  struck  with  the 
similar  expression  on  the  faces  of  the  two  men.  It  was 
one  in  which  joy  and  keen  resolve  and  humble  thankful¬ 
ness  were  strangely  blended.  One  great  work  for  God 
which  Keith-Falconer  had  striven  hard  to  further  he  was 
allowed  to  see  in  its  full  completeness,  carried  on  by  men 
working  there  with  heartiest  and  purest  zeal.  Not  while 
any  of  the  present  generation  of  workers  survive  will  the 
name  of  Keith-Falconer  fade  out  of  loving  remembrance 
in  the  great  building  in  Mile  End  Road.” 

All  this  work  he  did  as  a  humble  layman,  who  did  not 
often  speak  in  public,  but  who  had  learned  the  secret  of 
“having  a  talk  with  a  man,”  and  one  man  at  a  time — as 


Jesus  did  with  Nicodemus  and  the  Samaritan  woman. 
This  was  his  form  of  evangelistic  and  missionary  work, 
getting  in  touch  with  an  individual  soul,  and  finding  the 
secret  key  that  unlocked  the  heart — a  personal,  private 
conversation  about  the  most  important  matters.  Such  a 
method  of  service  courts  no  publicity  and  escapes  observa¬ 
tion,  but  does  not  fail  of  recognition  in  God’s  book  of  re¬ 
membrance,  where  a  special  record  is  kept  of  those  who 
think  upon  His  name  and  speak  often  one  to  another.  For 
example,  while  on  a  bicycle  tour  with  a  friend  in  Suther- 
landshire,  in  1884,  he  wrote  to  his  wife  :  “We  had  a  job  to 
get  across  the  Kyle.  It  was  very  low  water,  and  we  had 
to  wade  some  distance  before  we  got  to  the  boat.  We 
had  a  talk  with  the  boatman,  who  said  he  had  been  praying 
and  searching  for  years,  but  couldn’t  find  Him.”  This 
modest,  unpretending  sentence,  written  to  her  he  loved 
best,  reveals  the  habit  of  the  man. 

ARABIA 

The  fourth  and  last  neriod  of  his  life  is  forever  linked 
with  Arabia. 

After  he  passed  his  last  examination  at  Cambridge,  in 
1880,  Keith-Falconer  gave  himself,  with  all  his  concentra¬ 
tion  of  mind,  to  the  study  of  the  Arabic,  including  the 
Koran.  First  he  got  from  books  what  preparatory  knowl¬ 
edge  of  that  difficult  tongue  he  could,  and  then  went  to  the 
Nile,  and  at  Assiout  resided  for  some  months  with  that 
well-known  missionary,  Dr.  H.  W.  Hogg,  to  acquire  the 
colloquial  language,  learn  the  temper  of  the  Arabic  mind, 
and  study  the  Moslem  faith.  Then  he  again  sought  the 
university  halls,  and  for  three  years  longer  carried  on  his 
research,  translating  the  Kalilah  and  Dimnah  *  and  mean- 

*  These  were  the  so-called  “Fables  of  Bidpai”  or  Pilpai,  an 
Indian  Brahman  and  gymnosophist,  of  great  antiquity.  Scarcely 
any  book  but  the  Bible  has  been  translated  into  so  many  tongues, 
and  its  history  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  human  development. 
Bidpai  has  been  called  chief  of  the  philosophers  of  India. 


14 


while  filling  the  post  of  Hebrew  Lecturer  at  Clare  College 
and  of  Theological  Examiner. 

Here  then  is  a  young  man,  not  yet  thirty,  married  to  a 

charming  woman,  Miss  Bevan,  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
finest  classical  surroundings.  Everything  was  calculated 
to  root  him  at  Cambridge,  where  before  him  lay  a  future 
of  almost  unlimited  possibilities.  He  might  have  grown 
in  such  a  soil  until,  like  the  palm,  he  overtopped  others 


STREET  SCENE  AT  ADEN. 

and  blossomed  into  a  surpassing  fruitfulness,  as  well  as  a 
scholarly  symmetry.  Fame  had  her  goal  and  laurel 
wreath  in  sight.  But  a  higher  calling  and  a  fadeless 
crown  absorbed  him.  He  left  all  behind  him  to  carry  the 
Gospel  message  to  distant  Aden. 

The  life  of  Dr.  John  Wilson,  of  Bombay,  had  opened 
his  eyes  to  the  possibilities  of  a  missionary  career,  and 


15 


about  the  same  time  General  Haig  had  called  attention  to 
Arabia  as  a  neglected  field,  and  to  the  strategic  importance 
of  this  particular  station  on  the  Red  Sea  as  a  point  of  ap¬ 
proach  and  occupation.  Aden  as  a  military  position  con¬ 
trols  the  Red  Sea,  and  in  a  mercantile  and  nautical  point 
of  view  sustains  a  relation  to  Asia  and  Africa  similar  to 
that  of  Gibraltar  to  Europe  and  Africa.  In  the  year  of 
Victoria’s  coronation — 1838 — the  Arab  sultan  was  per¬ 
suaded  to  cede  the  peninsula  to  England,  and  it  was  made 
a  free  port.  It  is  but  five  hundred  miles  south  from  Mecca 
and  six  hundred  and  fifty  from  Medina.  Thousands  from 
all  parts  of  Arabia  enter  the  British  territory  every  year 
and  are  compelled  to  see  how  the  peace,  order,  freedom 
and  good  government,  there  prevalent,  contrast  with  the 
tyranny  and  anarchy  elsewhere  found. 

Keith-Falconer  had  an  interview  with  General  Haig, 
and  in  1885,  in  the  autumn,  went  to  Aden  to  prospect.  On 
his  way  he  began  inducting  his  wife  into  the  mysteries  of 
Arabic,  and  quaintly  wrote :  “Gwendolin  struggling  with 
Arabic.  Arabic  grammars  should  be  strongly  bound,  be¬ 
cause  learners  are  so  often  found  to  dash  them  frantically 
on  the  ground.” 

The  result  of  his  prospecting  tour  was  that  he  deter¬ 
mined  to  fix  on  Sheikh-Othman,  near  by,  as  his  station, 
leaving  Aden  to  the  Church  Missionary  Society.  He  ex¬ 
plored  the  neighborhood,  and  personally  proved  to  the 
people  that  not  all  Europeans  are  “clever  people  who  get 
drunk  and  have  no  religion  to  speak  of.”  He  found  camel 
riding  not  very  pleasant,  and  saw  one  of  those  brutes  seize 
and  shake  a  man  violently;  and  he  adds,  “a  camel  will 
sometimes  bite  off  a  man’s  head !” 

In  the  spring  of  1886  he  and  his  wife  were  again  in 
England ,  and  on  Easter  Day,  in  the  Assembly  Hall  at  Mile 
End,  Keith-Falconer  delivered,  on  “Temptation,”  the  most 
striking  address  of  his  life.  Was  it  a  reflection  of  the  in¬ 
ward  struggle  he  was  then  experiencing,  with  the  parting 

16 


of  the  ways  before  him  ?  with  nobility,  wealth,  distinction, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  seclusion,  self-denial  and  obscurity, 
on  the  other? 

In  May  he  spoke  before  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  on  Mohammedan  missions,  an 
address  equally  impressive  in  its  way,  which  reveals  his 
purpose  and  clear  conception  of  the  possible  service  to 
which  Arabia  appealed.  He  said  that  he  had  been  again 
and  again  urged  to  go  to  Arabia  and  set  up  a  school,  and 
that  one  day  a  Mohammedan,  asking  for  a  piece  of  paper, 
wrote  in  a  mysterious  fashion,  “If  you  want  the  people  to 
walk  in  your  way,  then  set  up  schools  ”  The  man  was  a 
Hadji,  returning  from  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  where  he 
had  been  thoroughly  stripped  of  all  his  money.  Keith- 
Falconer  offered  him  a  copy  of  John’s  gospel,  but  he 
would  not  accept  it;  and,  being  further  questioned,  ac¬ 
knowledged  that  he  liked  the  historical  parts,  but  other 
parts  made  him  fearful.  He  pointed  to  the  talk  between 
Christ  and  the  woman  at  Jacob’s  well,  “If  thou  knewest 
the  gift  of  God,”  etc.,  “and,”  said  the  Hadji,  “that  verse 
makes  my  heart  tremble,  lest  I  be  made  to  follow  in  the 
way  of  the  Messiah.” 

This  young  Semitic  scholar,  already  the  greatest  [  ?]  liv¬ 
ing  orientalist,  saw  the  way  to  a  great  work  at  this  south¬ 
ern  station  in  Arabia.  He  would  have  a  school,  a  medical 
mission,  and  a  depot  for  distributing  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
He  must  study  medicine  himself  and  secure  a  Christian 
physician  as  his  co-worker.  He  would  put  himself  under 
the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Scottish  Church,  but  he 
would  pay  all  costs  of  the  mission  himself. 

Just  at  this  point,  and  greatly  to  his  surprise,  he  was 
made  Professor  of  Arabic  at  Cambridge.  The  position 
was  partly  honorary,  its  active  teaching  depending  mostly 
on  an  associate ;  and  so  it  was  accepted,  undoubtedly  not 
because  of  a  divided  purpose,  but  because  his  mind  was  set 
on  Arabia,  and  his  Cambridge  work  would  augment  his 


17 


power  to  turn  attention  to  its  needs.  He  gave  a  course 
of  three  lectures  on  “The  Pilgrimage  to  Mecca,”  and  on 
the  evening  after  his  last  lecture  was  again  off  for  Aden 
with  his  wife  and  his  accomplished  colleague,  Dr.  Stew¬ 
art  Cowen. 

This  was  November,  1886.  He  laid  the  foundation  for 
his  mission  premises  and  work,  and  the  force  of  his  char¬ 
acter  was  already  making  an  impression  on  the  Moslem 
mind,  so  that,  within  a  few  months,  there  were  but  few 
who  came  in  touch  with  this  Christlike  man  who  were 
willing  to  admit  that  they  were  followers  of  Mohammed ; 
but  they  were  wont  to  say,  “There  are  no  Moslems  here !” 
The  Gospel  in  Arabic  found  both  purchasers  and  readers 
with  those  who  had  read  in  this  grand  man  the  living 
epistle  of  God. 

But  the  Aden  fever  proved  a  fatal  foe.  Both  Keith- 
Falconer  and  his  wife  were  stricken  in  February,  1887, 
and  fresh  attacks  rapidly  weakened  his  stalwart  constitu¬ 
tion  until,  on  May  11,  he  sank  into  quiet  slumber  and 
could  no  more  be  awaked  for  service  in  this  lower  sphere. 
His  biographer,  Mr.  Sinker,  beautifully  writes :  “It  was 
indeed  the  end.  Quietly  he  passed  away.  God’s  finger 
touched  him  and  he  slept.  Slept?  nay,  rather  awakened, 
not  in  the  close,  heated  room  where  he  had  so  long  lain 
helpless — the  weary  nurse,  overcome  with  heat  and  watch¬ 
ing,  slumbering  near — the  young  wife,  widowed  ere  she 
knew  her  loss,  lying  in  an  adjoining  room,  herself  broken 
down  with  illness  as  well  as  anxiety — the  loyal  doctor, 
resting  after  his  two  nights’  vigil — not  on  these  do  Ion 
Keith-Falconer’s  eyes  open.  He  is  in  the  presence  of  his 
Lord;  the  life  which  is  the  life  indeed  has  begun.” 

After  five  months  of  labor  in  his  chosen  field  the  body 
of  Keith-Falconer  was  lovingly  laid  to  rest  in  the  cemetery 
at  Aden  by  British  officers  and  soldiers  of  Her  Majesty— 
fitting  burial  for  one  of  the  soldiers  of  a  greater  King, 
who,  with  his  armor  on  and  his  courage  undaunted,  fell 

18 


with  his  face  to  the  foe.  The  martyr  of  Aden  had  entered 
God's  Eden.  And  so  Great  Britain  made  her  first  offering 
— and  it  was  a  very  costly  one — to  Arabia’s  evangeliza¬ 
tion. 


THE  SPEAKING  DEAD. 

No  doubt  there  be  those  who  will  exclaim,  “To  what 
purpose  is  this  waste!'’  for  this  flask  of  costly  ointment, 
broken  and  poured  out  amid  Arabia’s  arid  sands,  might 
have  been  kept  in  the  classic  halls  of  Cambridge,  and  even 
yet  be  breathing  its  perfume  where  scholars  tread  and 
heroes  are  made.  To  this  and  all  such  cavils  of  unbelief 
there  is  but  one  answer,  and  it  is  all-sufficient,  for  it  is 
God’s  answer :  “What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but 
thou  shalt  know  hereafter.” 

The  Free  Church,  whose  missionary  he  was,  declares : 
“The  falling  asleep,  in  the  first  months  of  fervent  service, 
of  the  Hon.  Ion  Keith-Falconer,  in  the  extreme  Asian  out¬ 
post  in  South  Arabia,  gives  solemn  urgency  to  his  last 
appeal  to  the  cultured,  the  wealthy,  and  the  unselfish, 
whom  that  devoted  volunteer  for  Christ  represented  when 
he  addresed  them  in  these  words :  ‘While  vast  continents 
are  shrouded  in  almost  utter  darkness,  and  hundreds  of 
millions  suffer  the  horrors  of  heathenism  or  Islam,  the 
burden  of  proof  lies  upon  you  to  show  that  the  circum¬ 
stances  in  which  God  has  placed  you  were  meant  by  Him 
to  keep  you  out  of  the  foreign  mission  field.’  ” 

God  makes  no  mistakes,  and  we  are  “immortal  till  our 
work  is  done,”  if  we  are  fully  in  His  plan.  We  may  not 
penetrate  the  arcana  of  His  secret  purposes  and  read  the 
final  issue  of  our  disappointments,  but,  as  Dr.  J.  W.  Dulles 
used  to  say,  they  are,  rightly  read,  “His  appointments.” 
The  short  career  of  Keith-Falconer  is  a  lesson  such  as 
never  has  been  more  impressively  taught — that  nothing  is 
too  good  to  be  given  to  God  on  the  altar  of  missions. 
Keith-Falconer’s  death  sent  an  electric  shock  through  the 


*9 


British  kingdom  and  the  wider  Church  of  Christ.  But  it 
was  his  distinction  and  accomplishments  that  made  it  im¬ 
possible  for  his  life’s  lesson  to  remain  unread.  His  fame 
gave  a  trumpet  voice  to  his  words  and  made  his  life  vocal 
with  witness.  Admiration  and  love  united  to  draw  others 
to  follow  in  the  steps  of  a  heroism  so  divinely  self-obliv¬ 
ious.  The  Church  asked  for  one  volunteer  to  step  into 
the  breach,  and  thirteen  of  the  graduating  class  of  the 
New  College  at  once  responded;  but  the  response  did 
not  end  then  or  there. 

The  very  year  of  Keith-Falconer’s  death  Robert  P. 
Wilder  and  John  N.  Forman  were  going  about  among  the 
colleges  and  theological  schools  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  appealing  for  volunteers,  from  the  very  best  of 
the  educated  young  men,  for  the  foreign  field.  And  now, 
during  the  years  that  have  passed  since  this  martyr  spirit 
of  Aden  went  up  to  God,  several  thousand  lives  of  young 
men  and  women  in  Britain  and  America  have  been  of¬ 
fered  to  God,  quickened  by  this  example  of  consecration. 

The  Henry  Martyn  Memorial  Hall  at  Cambridge,  the 
Hannington  Memorial  Hall  at  Oxford,  and  many  other 
monuments  of  the  dead  and  living  who  have  given  them¬ 
selves  to  God’s  mission  work  are  keeping  alive  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  the  Cambridge  orientalist.  He,  being  dead,  yet 
speaketh,  and  no  voice  of  the  last  half  century  is  heard 
more  widely  by  the  young  men  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

He  sought  to  “call  attention  to  Arabia he  has  done  it 
in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  that  he  never  imagined.  The 
workman  fell,  but  the  work  goes  on.  Under  Rev.  W.  R. 
W.  Gardner  and  Dr.  Young  new  currents  of  influence 
began  to  flow  through  Aden.  In  1888  a  large  number 
of  Abyssinian  children,  who  had  been  carried  into  Arabia 
from  ruined  homes  and  massacred  families,  for  enslave¬ 
ment,  were  rescued  by  a  British  man-of-war  and  put  into 
school  in  this  mission  for  Christian  training,  to  be  sent 
back  to  Abyssinia  as  missionaries.  Christian  teachers, 


20 


evangelists,  and  physicians  have  since  gone  to  this  port  on 
the  Gulf  of  Aden  to  take  up  the  work  Keith-Falconer  laid 
down.  And  on  both  sides  of  the  Red  Sea,  in  Africa  and 
Asia,  the  mission  which  he  began  is  likely  to  be  the  seed 
of  other  enterprises  looking  to  the  evangelization  of  both 
continents. 

The  Keith-Falconer  Mission  to  Arabia  has  not  come  to 
its  grave  because  its  founder  sleeps  in  the  dreary  cemetery 
at  Aden.  On  these  southern  shores  of  Arabia  stand  the 
“Scots  Church'’  and  the  Church  of  England  edifices,  one 
of  which  latter  is  largely  built  from  collections  made  in  the 
mail  steamers  that  ply  across  those  waters.  The  Scots 
Church,  which  is  now  building,  is  partly  the  result  of  the 
money  raised  by  the  children  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scot¬ 
land,  and  under  the  supervision  of  an  Arab  contractor  and 
workmen,  some  of  whom  are  Jews.  And  so,  curiously 
enough,  Christians,  Arabs  and  Jews  unite  to  erect  Christ’s 
houses  of  prayer  in  the  land  of  Ishmael !  Dr.  George 
Smith,  who  recently  visited  Aden,  testifies  to  the  prosper¬ 
ity  and  hopefulness  of  the  congregation  there  worshipping 
in  connection  with  the  Scots  Church,  and  says  that  in  the 
pioneering  stage  of  the  Arab  mission  it  supplies  the  spirit- 
ual  life  and  enthusiasm  of  common  worship  and  evangeli¬ 
cal  efifort.  Dr.  Young  acts  as  military  chaplain  for  the 
British  infantry  and  artillery  located  at  Aden,  and  with  his 
colleague  undertakes  not  only  to  furnish  two  sermons  a 
week,  but  to  meet  the  demands  made  on  two  medical  mis¬ 
sionaries  for  Arab  and  Somali,  Jew  and  Parsee  ;  thus  on 
one  hand  nourishing  piety  in  the  British  residents,  and 
reaching  out  on  the  other  to  the  various  foreign,  Moslem, 
Parsee,  and  other  populations  that  need  Gospel  effort. 

The  British  camp  and  the  native  town  of  Aden  lie  in 
the  crater  of  an  extinct  volcano.  What  a  typical  place  in 
which  to  plant  the  Bible,  with  the  tree  of  knowledge  and 
of  life !  And  the  Bible  is  planted  there.  On  a  busy 
corner  of  the  main  street  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 


Society's  depot  stands.  Nearby  stands  the  square  and 
well-fenced  inclosure,  with  its  somewhat  rude  entrance, 
which  is  the  resting  place  of  the  body  of  Keith-Falconer. 
In  the  middle  of  a  row  of  graves  of  British  officers  and 
men,  each  with  a  single  cross  above  it,  may  be  seen  the 
tomb  of  the  first  missionary  that  Scotland  gave  to  Arabia ; 
who,  as  Dr.  Smith  says,  “died  at  thirty,  one  year  younger 
than  Henry  Martyn,  and  was  followed  by  the  aged  bishop, 


DR.  young’s  DISPENSARY,  at  SHEIKH  OTHMAN,  ADEN. 

Valpy  French,  on  the  eastern  shore  at  Muscat.  A  mas¬ 
sive  block  of  white  Egyptian  marble  covers  the  grave, 
while  there  rises  at  its  head  an  exquisitely  pure  slab,  with 
an  inscription,  under  a  coronet  which  might  well  represent 
the  martyr’s  crown.  There  Dr.  Cowen,  who  was  then  his 
medical  colleague,  and  several  officers  and  men  of  her 
British  majesty’s  Ninety-eighth  Regiment,  as  the  sun  set, 


22 


laid  all  that  was  mortal  of  the  young  Scottish  noble,  schol¬ 
ar,  and  self-consecrated  missionary  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland.  The  sacred  spot  is  the  first  missionary  mile¬ 
stone  into  Arabia.” 

Dr.  Smith  farther  says — and  we  quote  the  words  of  this 
distinguished  correspondent  as  the  latest  available  infor¬ 
mation  from  this  field : 

“As  the  Keith-Falconer  Mission,  bearing  its  founder’s 
name  and  generously  supported  by  his  family,  this  first 
modern  mission  to  the  Arab  may  be  said  to  have  begun 
anew  in  the  year  1889.  First  of  all,  Principal  Mackichan, 
when  on  his  return  to  Bombay,  after  furlough,  carefully 
inspected  the  Sheikh-Othman  headquarters,  and,  with  the 
local  medical  authorities,  reported  in  favor  of  continuing 
and  extending  the  plans  of  its  founder.  The  mission  is 
now,  as  a  result  of  past  experience,  conducted  by  two  fully 
qualified  men,  one  of  whom  is  married,  who  are  working 
in  most  brotherly  harmony,  preaching  the  Gospel  in 
Arabic  as  well  as  healing  the  sick.  Its  Arabic  and  English 
school  is  taught  by  Alexander  Aabud,  a  married  member 
of  the  Syrian  Evangelical  Church,  from  the  Lebanon,  but 
trained  in  the  American  mission  in  Egypt. 

“All  over  this  neighborhood  the  medical  mission  found¬ 
ed  by  Keith-Falconer  is  making  for  itself  a  name,  and  its 
doctors  are  received,  or  visited  at  their  dispensary,  as  the 
messengers  of  God.  European  and  native  alike,  natives 
from  India  and  Africa,  as  well  as  the  Arab  camel  drivers 
and  subjects  of  the  Sultan  of  Lahej — himself  and  his  fam¬ 
ily  patients  of  the  Mission — turn  to  the  missionaries  with 
gratitude  and  hope,  and  will  do  them  any  service.  No¬ 
where  has  the  influence  of  medical  missions  in  this  early 
stage,  of  course  preparatory,  been  so  remarkable  as  in  this 
Yemen  corner  of  Arabia  during  the  past  seven  years.” 


23 


TRAITS  OF  CHARACTER 

It  is,  perhaps,  proper,  before  we  add  the  last  touches  to 
this  imperfect  sketch  of  one  of  the  finest,  brightest,  and 
noblest  young  men  of  the  century,  that  we  indicate  some 
of  those  special  traits  which  shone  in  him  and  provoke  us 
to  emulation.  Among  them  we  select  the  following  as 
most  pertinent  to  the  particular  purposes  for  which  mainly 
this  book  is  prepared,  and  with  the  prayer  that  many  of 
those  who  read  these  pages  may  follow  him  as  he  fol¬ 
lowed  the  supreme  Exemplar  of  us  all. 

First,  his  simplicity.  The  childlike  character,  refined  of 
what  is  merely  childish,  is  the  divine  ideal  of  human  per¬ 
fection.  We  must  not  outgrow  the  simple  artlessness, 
humility,  docility  of  childhood,  but  rather  grow  backward 
toward  it  perpetually.  The  ideal  child  is  inseparable  in 
our  minds  from  faith,  love,  truth,  and  trust ;  and  these 
are  the  cardinal  virtues  of  Christian  character.  To  learn 
to  doubt,  to  hate,  to  lie,  to  suspect,  is  to  learn  the  devil’s 
lessons,  and  any  approach  to  these  is  just  so  much  prog¬ 
ress  in  Satan’s  school.  This  pioneer  to  Arabia  never  lost 
his  simple  childlikeness.  His  manhood  was  not  an  out¬ 
growing  of  his  boyhood,  in  all  that  makes  a  child  beautiful 
and  attractive.  He  never  put  on  airs  of  any  sort,  but 
hated  all  hollow  pretense  and  empty  professions.  His 
was  that  highest  art  of  concealing  all  art ;  in  his  most  care¬ 
ful  work  he  did  not  lose  naturalness,  and  in  his  most 
studied  performances  there  was  no  affectation.  He  acted 
out  himself — a  genuine,  honest,  sincere  man,  who  con¬ 
cealed  nothing  and  had  nothing  to  conceal. 

Second,  his  eccentricity.  We  use  this  word  because  it 
has  forever  had  a  new  meaning  by  his  interpretation  of  it. 
He  was  wont  to  say  that  a  true  disciple  must  not  fear  to 
be  called  “eccentric.”  “Eccentric,”  said  he,  “means  * out 
of  centre /  and  you  will  be  out  of  centre  with  the  world  if 
you  are  in  centre  with  Christ.”  He  dared  to  be  one  of 
God's  “ peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works.”  While 


24 


we  are  content  to  live  on  the  low  level  of  the  average  “pro¬ 
fessor  of  religion"  we  shall  exhibit  no  peculiarity,  for 
there  is  no  peculiarity  about  a  dead  level.  But  if,  like  a 
mountain  rising  from  a  plain,  we  dare  to  aspire  to  higher 
and  better  things,  to  get  nearer  to  God,  to  live  in  a  loftier 
altitude  and  atmosphere,  we  shall,  like  the  mountain,  be 
singular  and  exceptional,  we  cannot  escape  observation, 
and  may  not  escape  hostile  criticism.  Blessed  is  the  man 
who,  like  Caleb  and  Joshua,  ventures  to  stand  compara¬ 
tively  alone  in  testimony  to  God;  for  it  is  such  as  these 
who  go  over  into  the  inheritance  of  peculiar  privileges 
and  rewards. 

Third,  his  unselfishness.  Few  of  us  appreciate  the  de¬ 
formity  and  enormity  of  the  sin  of  simply  being  absorbed 
in  our  own  things.  One  may  be  a  monster  of  repulsive¬ 
ness  in  God’s  eyes  through  qualities  that  exhibit  little  out¬ 
ward  hatefulness  and  ugliness  to  the  common  eye.  Greed, 
lust,  ambition,  pride,  envy  and  jealousy,  malice  and  un¬ 
charity,  may  not  be  forbidden  in  man’s  decalogue,  but  they 
eat  away  the  core  of  character  like  the  worm  in  the  apple’s 
heart.  Balzac,  in  one  of  his  stories,  revives  the  old  myth 
of  the  magic  skin  which  enabled  the  wearer  to  get  his 
wish,  but  with  every  new  gratification  of  selfish  desire 
shrank  and  held  him  in  closer  embrace,  until  it  squeezed 
the  breath  of  life  out  of  him.  And  the  myth  is  an  open 
mystery,  to  be  seen  in  daily  life.  Every  time  that  we  seek 
something  for  ourselves  only,  without  regard  to  God’s 
glory  or  man’s  good,  our  very  success  is  defeat ;  we  may 
get  what  we  want,  but  we  shrink,  in  capacity  for  the  high¬ 
est  joy  and  the  noblest  life. 

Fourth,  his  concentration.  Paul  writes  to  the  Philip- 
pians,  “This  one  thing  I  do.”  In  the  original  it  is  far 
more  terse  and  dense  with  meaning.  He  uses  two  little 
Greek  words,  the  shortest  in  the  language  ( fr  Se  ) ,  “But 
one !”  an  exclamation  that  no  words  can  interpret.  All  his 
energies  were  directed  toward  and  converged  in  one.  Our 


25 


lives  are  a  waste  because  they  lack  unity  of  aim  and  effort. 
We  seek  too  many  things  to  attain  anything  great  or 
achieve  anything  grand.  Our  energies  are  divided,  scat¬ 
tered,  dissipated.  Impulse  is  followed,  and  impulse  is 
variable,  unsteady,  and  inconstant,  while  principle  is  con¬ 
stant,  like  the  polar  star.  We  are  too  much  controlled  by 
opinions  which  change  with  the  hour,  instead  of  by  con¬ 
victions  which,  being  intelligently  formed,  hold  us,  like 
the  girdle  of  truth  in  the  Christian  armor,  instead  of  our 
merely  holding  them.  It  is  possible  for  a  man  or  woman 
to  gain  almost  any  goal,  desirable  or  not,  if  the  whole 
energy  be  concentrated.  How  immense  the  importance, 
then,  of  getting  a  right  purpose  to  command  the  soul,  and 
then  making  everything  else  bend  and  bow  before  it ! 

PERSONAL  WESSONS 

God  speaks  to  the  young  men  and  women  of  our  day  as 
in  trumpet  tones :  “He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him 
hear!”  An  example  like  that  set  before  us  in  this  life- 
story  is  one  of  God’s  voices.  In  Keith-Falconer  “the 
Holy  Ghost  saith,”  " Stop  and  consider /”  What  way  is 
your  life-stream  running?  Are  you  living  for  yourself 
or  for  God  and  for  man?  Every  man  is  his  brother's 
keeper,  and  it  is  fitting  that  the  first  man  who  questioned 
this  should  have  been  Cain,  his  brother’s  murderer !  Did 
it  ever  occur  to  the  reader  that  every  one  of  us  is  either  his 
brother’s  keeper  or  slayer?  Every  life  is  saving  or  de¬ 
stroying  other  lives.  We  lift  men  up  or  we  drag  them 
down ;  there  is  no  escape  from  responsibility. 

Keith-Falconer  saw  that  no  man  liveth  unto  himself 
and  no  man  dieth  unto  himself.  Life  is  bound  up  in  a 
bundle  with  all  other  life.  We  are  none  of  us  independent 
of  the  others,  and  we  cannot  escape  the  necessity  of  influ¬ 
encing  them  for  good  or  evil.  Eternity  alone  can  meas¬ 
ure  the  capacity  for  such  influence,  for  eternity  alone  can 
give  the  vision  and  the  revelation  of  what  life  covers  in 


26 


the  reach  and  range  of  its  mighty  forces.  It  is  a  solemn 
and  august  thought  that,  to-day,  each  one  of  us  is  pro¬ 
jecting  lines  of  influence  in  the  unending  hereafter.  The 
life  span  is  infinite. 

This  Life  but  a  Beginning. — So  looked  upon,  this  short 
career  of  thirty  years  did  not  end  at  Aden  ten  years  ago. 
That  was  the  laying  of  a  basis  for  a  building  that  is  going 
on  unseen  and  silently,  and  whose  spires  will  pierce  the 
clouds.  That  was  the  planting  of  a  seed  for  a  tree  whose 
branches  shall  shake  like  Lebanon,  and  wave  in  beauty  and 
fertility  when  the  mountains  are  no  more.  That  was  the 
starting  of  a  career  which  is  still  going  on,  only  that  the 
cloud  is  between  us  and  its  hidden  future,  and  we  cannot 
trace  its  onward,  upward  path. 

Let  us  turn  once  more  to  that  grave  at  Aden  and  read 
the  simple  inscription: 


TO 

THE  DEAR  MEMORY  OF 

THE  HON.  ION  KEITH-FALCONER, 

THIRD  SON  OF 

THE  EARL  AND  COUNTESS  OF  KINTORE, 

WHO  ENTERED  INTO  REST 
AT  SHEIKH-OTHMAN,  MAY  II,  1887, 

AGED  30  YEARS. 

• 

“If  any  man  serve  me,  let  him  follow  me;  and  where  I  am, 
there  shall  also  my  servant  be :  if  any  man  serve  me,  him  will  my 
Father  honor.” 


[Note. — For  later  accounts  of  the  work  of  the  Keith-Falconer 
Mission  see  their  printed  annual  reports  ;  for  the  work  of  the  Arabian 
Mission  the  Quarterly,  “Neglected  Arabia”.] 


27 


Press  ° f 
(JKauneeyMoIt 
New  York. 


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i.  • 


“‘My  sword  I  give  to  him  that  shall 
succeed  me  in  my  pilgrimage,  and  my  cour¬ 
age  and  skill  to  him  that  can  get  it.  My 
marks  and  scars  I  carry  with  me,  to  be  a 
witness  for  me,  that  I  have  fought  His 
battles  who  now  will  be  my  rewarder  ’  .  . 

So  he  passed  over,  and  all  the 
trumpets  sounded  for  him  on  the  other 
side.” 

— Pilgrim's  Progress, 

Death  of  Valiant-for-Truth. 


